Processing systems, such as personal computers or the like, are designed to facilitate easy connectivity to a variety of other systems or peripheral devices. Connectivity between the processing system and other systems or devices is often accomplished using an intermediary connection device.
For example, a communications system, such as a telephone system, may be communicatively coupled to the processing system using an intermediary connection device, such as a modem, that is inserted into a receptacle, slot or the like on the processing system. Thus, when a modem card is inserted into a pre-configured card slot and a phone line is connected to the modem card, the processing device becomes communicatively coupled to the telephone system.
As another example, a printing device may be communicatively coupled to the processing system using an intermediary connection device, referred to as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, that is inserted into a receptacle, slot or the like on the processing system. Thus, when a USB port is inserted into a pre-configured card slot and a printing device is connected to the USB port, the processing device becomes communicatively coupled to the printing device.
Systems and peripheral devices are configured to communicate to the processing system using a specific communication format. One example of a communication format is referred to as the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) format. Other formats include the USB format, ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), PCI Express, or various packet based communication formats.
As noted above, various types of intermediary connection devices are used to facilitate communicatively coupling of the processing system to another system or peripheral device. The above-described modem card (intermediary connection device) may be configured as a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card that fits into a PCMCIA slot on the processing device. Another example of card-based devices includes the “ExpressCard” format that supports PCI Express or USB formats. Furthermore, wireless communication formats, such as infrared, radio frequency (RF) or other suitable communication mediums, may be used for communications between an intermediary connection device and the system or peripheral device.
When the user and the owner of the processing system are the same individual, decisions regarding what systems or peripheral devices are communicatively coupled to the processing system are made by the user/owner. However, in other situations, the owner and the user may be different. The owner may be an individual, or a type of organization, that owns many processing systems, such as personal computers (PCs) or work stations. In this situation, the user of the processing system could be an employee.
In situations where there are many processing systems used by a plurality of users, such as the employees, the owner may desire to control access between the plurality of processing systems and other systems or peripheral devices. The owner, or another authorized employee such as a network administrator, may determine which systems or peripheral devices should have access to the processing systems. Accordingly, it is desirable to control access by selectively authorizing the processing systems to have access to certain systems or peripheral devices, while denying access by withholding authorization to other systems or peripheral devices.